Summary of Main Ideas

I was talking with a friend of mine recently who had set some incredibly lofty goals for himself. When I asked why he set those particular goals, he replied, “To prove that I can do it.”

I asked him what happens once he’s proved to himself that he could do it? His response was, “Well then I’ll want to do something else.”

Winning can be a greedy mistress.

Listen to me carefully: You are enough simply because there is breath in your lungs.

Your “enoughness” doesn’t come from your ability to do anything, but from who you were made to be and what you were made to do.

For the longest time, my identity was found in my size and my strength. I was stacked, and I strong. And if I wasn’t those things, I wasn’t sure who I was.

I knew something had to change, so do you know what I did?I went vegan.

Not because I was particularly passionate about animal rights, and not because it was “better for me.” No, I went vegan because I needed to rip my identity from my size and my strength, and find it in my personhood.

Where is your identity found? In what you do? In what you accomplish?

Or is it found in who you are? In who you were made to be?You will never reach the fullness of what you were created to do so long as your identity is found in what you do.

What happens when what you do gets taken away? Eventually, Lebron James won’t be able to play basketball anymore. Eventually, Todd Gurley won’t be able to run a football. That part of their identity will be gone.

But when your identity is found in your personhood, not your actions, then there is no limit to what you can become and what you can do.

Quotes

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” Ralph Ellison, from Invisible Man

Reflection Questions

What would it take for you to truly believe that you are enough, just the way that you are?

What is the one thing, that if taken from you, would cause your identity to unravel? That is the place you need to start.

Who are the people in your life that are speaking true identity into your life?

What is holding you back from believing that you were created on purpose, for a purpose, and with a purpose?